Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Tangdu Hospital, The Fourth Military Medical University, 169 Changle West Road, Xi'an 710038, China.
Toxicology. 2013 Aug 9;310:8-14. doi: 10.1016/j.tox.2013.05.004. Epub 2013 May 22.
Exposure to electromagnetic pulses in certain doses may lead to increase in the permeability of the blood testes barrier (BTB) in mice, which in turn affects spermatogenesis, penetration and spermiation. TGF-β3 is a key molecule involved in BTB permeability via regulation of tight junction proteins, and it participates in regulating spermatogenesis, synthesis of steroids and production of the extracellular matrix in testicular tissue. Therefore, it is hypothesized that TGF-β3 plays important roles in electromagnetic pulse (EMP)-induced changes in BTB permeability. In the present study, we carried out whole-body irradiation on mice using EMP of different intensities. No obvious pathological changes or significant increase in apoptosis was detected in testicular tissues after exposure to 100 and 200 pulses of intensity 200kV/m; however, with 400 pulses we observed the degeneration and shrinkage of testicular tissues along with a significant increase in apoptotic rate. Moreover, in the 100- and 200-EMP groups, a non-significant increase in TGF-β3 mRNA and protein expression was observed, whereas in the 400-EMP group a significant increase was observed (P<0.05). These results indicate that increase in the apoptotic rate of testicular tissues and increase in TGF-β3 expression may be one of the mechanisms for EMP-induced increase in BTB permeability in mice.
暴露于一定剂量的电磁脉冲可能会导致小鼠血睾屏障（BTB）的通透性增加，这反过来又会影响精子发生、穿透和精子释放。TGF-β3 是通过调节紧密连接蛋白参与 BTB 通透性的关键分子，它参与调节精子发生、类固醇的合成和睾丸组织中细胞外基质的产生。因此，假设 TGF-β3 在电磁脉冲（EMP）诱导的 BTB 通透性变化中发挥重要作用。在本研究中，我们对小鼠进行了全身辐照，使用了不同强度的 EMP。在暴露于 200kV/m 强度的 100 和 200 个脉冲后，睾丸组织没有明显的病理变化或明显的细胞凋亡增加；然而，在 400 个脉冲时，我们观察到睾丸组织的退化和萎缩以及细胞凋亡率的显著增加。此外，在 100-和 200-EMP 组中，TGF-β3 mRNA 和蛋白表达呈非显著性增加，而在 400-EMP 组中则观察到显著性增加（P<0.05）。这些结果表明，睾丸组织细胞凋亡率的增加和 TGF-β3 表达的增加可能是 EMP 诱导小鼠 BTB 通透性增加的机制之一。
